New Webmail System

08/13/2004

Contributed by Karen Sunderland

ITS is pleased to announce a new webmail system. Starting August 16, you can access and use the new system at webmail2.ithaca.edu.

The new webmail is ready to use immediately. Your addresses, groups, and vacation message settings have all been moved from the old system for you! Your existing email messages are, of course, available in the new system as well.

The old webmail system will still be accessible until August 31. However, you should not make any changes to addresses or settings in the old system as these changes will be lost when the old webmail is retired.

The new system retains all the functions and tools of the previous system, including mail forwarding, vacation messages, and spell checking, but also includes many new features. Among the new options are:

Improved Layout & Customizable Appearance
You can choose to display your list of folders to the right or left of the screen and select a color scheme from one of many built-in themes!

Message Archiving
It is now possible to archive email messages and their attachments directly from webmail! Just designate the messages to be archived by selecting their check box and click the "Archive" button at the bottom of the screen. Webmail will compress the messages into a Zip file and save them to a location of your choice.

Message Highlighting
Messages from certain individuals or email addresses can now be automatically highlighted in your inbox. Just specify the email address and select a color. See who is sending email at a glance!

Message Filtering
The new webmail will now filter messages. You can designate specific rules and have messages from certain addresses automatically filed in folders other than the inbox. Filtering is an easy and efficient way to help automatically organize your email.

Fetch Mail
Webmail can now gather email from other POP email accounts (not WebCT), allowing you to use webmail as your only email program! From the "Options" screen, simply select the "Fetch Mail" section, enter the appropriate information about the other account, and save the settings. To fetch mail from that account, just click the "Fetch" link near the top of the page and select the account.

Notifications
The new system can now notify you of new messages. There are options to either play a sound or display a pop-up window to alert you of new mail. Go to the "NewMail" section under "Options" to turn this on or off.

Please note that webmail is an "open source" product for which there are many other add-on options, -- such as a weather feature that can display information about current weather in your webmail window. Many of these add-ons are convenience features that are non-critical to the use of e-mail, and for which there is no official documentation in the help menu. ITS may only be able to offer limited guidance for the undocumented features, but you are welcome to explore them and ask our advice.

We hope that you enjoy using the new system. With the improvements and enhanced features, we think you will find the new webmail to be a more powerful and complete email program.

If you have any questions, please contact the Helpdesk at or call 4-3282.